Writers4Higher features Jill Fletcher Palaez

Welcome to Writers4Higher

The purpose of the Writers4Higher blog: to feature authors in a new light, a fresh look at the way writers use their talents and life energies to uplift humankind. Writers4Higher doesn’t promote religious or political views. Authors are asked to answer three simple questions: simple, yet complex.

This issue, Writers4Higher features

Jill Fletcher Palaez

Hi. Welcome to the Writers4Higher family!

1. Tell me about yourself. Your book, your life, your inspiration.

The author, my mother, Jill Fletcher Pelaez was born in 1924 in Puerto Rico, and she died at age 88 on July 2, 2012 in Tallahassee, FL. She had an insatiable zest for life and broad interests, encompassing art, music, dance, writing and history. She was especially interested in the Civil War, the end of which became the setting for her novel.

Mom worked on her first and only novel for 20 years and had not yet found a publisher for it. In May 2012 she was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, and within two weeks WiDo Publishing had offered her a contract. She was thrilled to know that her work and her protagonist, Tench — whom she dearly loved —would live on after her.

Mom didn’t live to see her book in print; but she knew it would finally see the light of day this month. We are thrilled for Mom, but also for the world, that her book, The Day is a White Tablet (WiDo Publishing), is now available to entertain, to teach and to uplift all those who read it.

2. Where do you see your writing taking you in the future?

Since Mom isn’t with us any longer, I’ll just let you know about her past writing, which was primarily in the realm of children’s literature. She was the author of Donkey Tales (Abingdon Press 1971), a children’s book of short stories set in Spain. She also contributed articles and short stories to Ideas and Images (a text book of the American Book Company), and to magazines, U.S. Lady, Humpty Dumpty, and Highlights for Children.

3. How do you use your talents/time to help others?

Mom’s altruism never waited for the grand gesture. All through her life, she had a way of making each person who crossed her path feel important. She wanted to hear everyone's life story, and when people spoke, she gave them her full focus and attention. For example, in 2004, when my Mom was 80, she and I went on a trip together to visit my oldest daughter in Hawaii. I will never forget the attention Mom attracted as we traveled. She embraced and became friends with everyone. The manicurist at the nail salon, the clerks at the dress shops, the waiters at the restaurants, the people we met at shows we attended, the passengers on the airplane, the flight attendants, and my daughter’s friends—all became her instant friends. She exchanged e-mail addresses with everyone.

As a little girl, I remember living in Needham, Massachusetts for a year while my Air Force father was on duty there. All of our friends became her friends. Everyone loved my mother. She would gather our friends around her and teach them the hula, listen to their problems, and get to know them in profound ways. When we moved, the neighborhood children gave HER the going away parties! 

Mom also cared deeply for others less fortunate. In her older age, she and her friend and companion (she never liked calling him her boyfriend!), would seek out the homeless in the community so they could buy a meal, or give money, or help in some little way. She could never say no to any organization that solicited her financial help. She generously gave to numerous organizations, everything from the American Red Cross and the Wounded Warrior Project to the Wilderness Society and the March of Dimes. 

Her biggest contribution, in my opinion, is the love and time she devoted to her family. When she could no longer drive, she became my housemate. I built onto my home so she could have her own space, a lovely suite. Her encouragement and love made my life richer then and makes my life richer now, especially as I prepare to introduce her book to the world.

Would you like to find Jill Fletcher Paleaz?

Check out the links to this talented author:

LINKS:

Jill Fletcher Palaez Website

The Day is a White Table on Facebook

  

 

Thank you for sharing this book and insights on your wonderful mother. Oh, how I wish I could have known her! Through her writing, and the love you and your family hold for her, she will live on. My  best to all of you.

Rhett DeVane

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Fiction with a Southern Twist

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Writers4Higher features Pat Bertram

Welcome to Writers4Higher

The purpose of the Writers4Higher blog: to feature authors in a new light, a fresh look at the way writers use their talents and life energies to uplift humankind. Writers4Higher doesn’t promote religious or political views. Authors are asked to answer three simple questions: simple, yet complex.

This issue, Writers4Higher features

Pat Bertram

Hi, Pat. Welcome to the Writers4Higher family!

 1. Tell me about yourself. Your book(s), your life, your inspiration.

I always thought I’d be a writer, so when I was twenty-five, I quit a job to write a book about a love that transcended time and physical bonds, told with sensitivity and great wisdom. Unfortunately, I discovered I had no talent for writing and no wisdom, so I gave up writing.

After I discovered I didn’t know how to write, I did temporary work for several years to gain experience of life. Or at least life as it pertains to work. I worked at hundreds of different companies doing everything from filing to billing to bookkeeping to operating a switchboard to selling cars to being a legal secretary. When I wasn’t working, which was frequently, I read. All those thousands of books seeped into my subconscious, and gave me a feel for storytelling, and so when I took up writing again, I had more of an idea of how to tell a story. I just had to learn the specifics, such as show don’t tell, which I did.

Three years ago, my life mate/soul mate died, and the only way I could handle my overwhelming grief was to pour it out onto pages of a journal, letters to him, and blog posts. When I discovered how much those blog posts meant to people who had also suffered grievous losses, I compiled my writings into a book about my first year of grief called Grief: The Great Yearning, which has recently been published by Second Wind Publishing. And so, quite by accident, I ended up writing the story of a love that transcended time and physical bonds, told with sensitivity and great wisdom. I just never knew that the story I’d always wanted to write would be mine.

2. Where do you see your writing taking you in the future?

I blog most days, and much of that writing is about my continued journey through grief. Someday, perhaps, I’ll write a sequel to Grief: The Great Yearning, chronicling how I found my way to renewed happiness, assuming, of course, I ever get there.

3.  How do you use your talents/time to help others?

I don’t really use my writing talents to help others. I wrote about grief to help myself get through a horrendous time in my life, and my writings in turn helped others realize that they are not alone in their grief, that others have felt as lost and lonely and adrift in a sea of pain as they do.

Would you like to find Pat?

Check out the links to this talented author:

Website - http://patbertram.com

Blog – http://ptbertram.wordpress.com

Second Wind Publishing - http://tinyurl.com/patbertram

Amazon - https://www.amazon.com/author/patbertram

Barnes and Noble - http://www.barnesandnoble.com/c/pat-bertram

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Pat-Bertram/47117252623

Pat Bertram

author of More Deaths Than One and A Spark of Heavenly Fire, available from Second Wind Publishing, LLC
http://patbertram.com

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Fiction with a Southern Twist

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Writers4Higher features Olivia deBelle Byrd

Welcome to Writers4Higher

The purpose of the Writers4Higher blog: to feature authors in a new light, a fresh look at the way writers use their talents and life energies to uplift humankind. Writers4Higher doesn’t promote religious or political views. Authors are asked to answer three simple questions: simple, yet complex.

This issue, Writers4Higher features

Olivia deBelle Byrd

Hi, Olivia. Welcome to the Writers4Higher family!

1. Tell me about yourself. Your book(s), your life, your inspiration.

I was born and bred in Panama City, Florida, on the beautiful waters of the Gulf of Mexico in the Florida Panhandle. My grandfather, Wyatt Oates Byrd, moved to Panama City in 1930 from Alabama so I would be called Old South. I graduated from Birmingham-Southern College in Birmingham, Alabama, am a former elementary school teacher, and was a stay-at-home mom for my two children, Tommy Jr. and Elizabeth. My husband, Tommy, and I still reside in Panama City.

Miss Hildreth Wore Brown-Anecdotes of a Southern Belle is my first book. It contains 41 humorous satirical anecdotes of a romp through Southern life. I like to call it real-life fiction as all the people, places, and events are real, but like all good Southern stories exaggeration and embellishment have been added.

The stories are punctuated with everyday mishaps that Southerners seem to have a knack for turning into entertainment. Because they are actual occurrences, the reader is drawn into the warmth and familiarity of the characters and their stories. The characters who dance across the pages range from Great-Aunt Lottie Mae, who is as "old-fashioned and opinionated as the day is long" to Mrs. Brewton, with her turban and dark sunglasses, who calls everyone "dahling" whether they are darling or not. Miss Hildreth was honored to win the 2011 Florida Publishers Association Awards for Florida Fiction for Adults and Cover Design.

In writing this first book, Miss Hildreth Wore Brown, I wrote what I knew-humor and the South. Since I was raised by a Southern father and grandmother of uncommon wit, the fabric of my childhood was laced with humor. I grew up surrounded by marvelous tales of Southern grande dames and eccentric Southern gentlemen. Humor was a staple in our household. I have loved the art of storytelling as long as I can remember. When I finally put pen to paper, the stories poured forth as though an age-old tap had been discovered and turned on. I loved the gush of warm and euphoric remembrances and seeing those memories transposed into the written word.

Lives have many forks in the road, but becoming a published author was a U-turn in mine. The world of publishing has taken me down many new paths. My readers have been my inspiration. They have made the lost sleep, uncertainty, and long hours’ worth it all. I have made new friends and renewed old friendships. I have found family I never knew existed. Every time a reader tells me they laughed at my words, my soul smiles. I have been in love with the written word as long as I can remember and to use it to bring pleasure to others is the greatest pleasure of all.

2. Where do you see your writing taking you in the future?

My next book is a novel-a sweet, sweet love story. Taking place in the South in the 1960s and '70s against the backdrop of the Vietnam War, it is the love story of Elisabeth Belle Sterling and Kincaid Patterson who search deep within their souls to save each other through their love and devotion. I like to say it is for the love story in all of us.

3. How do you use your talents/time to help others?

My belief system revolves around the Golden Rule-do unto others as you would have them do unto you and love your brother as yourself. My life has been immensely blessed and I believe we are put on this earth to help others who may be struggling or who may not have been as fortunate.

Being a third generation Panama-citian, I am very ensconced in various charities in our community such as the Boys and Girls Club and Early Learning Coalition. On a more personal level, every Christmas my daughter and I adopt a struggling family and supply them with Christmas gifts. We continue to do this even though my daughter is now married and living away. This act always turns out to be a blessing for me and adds value to my life.

Would you like to find Olivia?

Check out the links to this talented author:

Olivia's Website 

Olivia on Facebook 

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Rhett DeVane

Fiction with a Southern Twist

Writers4Higher blog

Rhett's Website

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Writer4Higher features Liltera Williams

Welcome to Writers4Higher

 

 

The purpose of the Writers4Higher blog: to feature authors in a new light, a fresh look at the way writers use their talents and life energies to uplift humankind. Writers4Higher doesn’t promote religious or political views. Authors are asked to answer three simple questions: simple, yet complex.

 

 

This issue, Writers4Higher features

 

Liltera Williams

 

 

 

 

Hi, Liltera. Welcome to the Writers4Higher family!

 

 

1. Tell me about yourself. Your book(s), your life, your inspiration.

I fell in love with writing at age 12 and married it at 18. It literally saved my life. Growing up surrounded by an outpour of negativity caused me to search for an outlet that offered the security of hope. Words became my umbrella. I’ve been on my #WriterGrind since graduating from The Florida State University in December of 2008. After completing 2 internships as an Editorial Intern and PR Intern, respectively, I was able to establish myself as a distinguished Freelance Writer in Jacksonville, FL. I currently maintain Contributing Writing efforts for EU Jacksonville Newspaper, The Ponte Vedra Recorder and The First Coast Register. I established my own freelance writing, proofreading and editing company, iWrite4orU, on August 4, 2011 and decided to embark on a full writing excursion at the beginning of 2012. With a mission to complete my first novel, Dearly Beloved S.I.S.T.A.S by year’s end, I was also inspired to publish my collection of poetry, Amateur Thoughts, on 12-12-12, which is currently available for purchase on my official website.

2. Where do you see your writing taking you in the future?

I have sparked a Live YOUR Dream movement that aims to inspire everyone to discover their purpose. This movement serves as my platform for delivering my overall message of overcoming hardships and keeping the faith long enough to receive a major blessing. I currently work full-time as an SEO Copywriter, while continuing to juggle freelance writing responsibilities, managing the tasks of assisting various clients, and focusing on the development and promotion of personal writing projects. My ultimate goal is to become a Bestselling Author by age 30.

3. How do you use your talents/time to help others?

I desire to inspire my readers and supporters on a daily basis by offering words of encouragement through personal experiences, poetic recollections and direct messages. My #WriterGrind: a strategic quest to accomplish various writing objectives while striving to conquer the demands of authorship, is a never-ending dream. Planning is my biggest obsession, but I don’t plan to wake up any time soon.

 

 

 

Would you like to find Liltera?

 

Check out the links to this talented author:

 

 

Liltera's website

Liltera on Facebook

Twitter: @iWrite4orU_LRW

Instagram: iWrite4orU_LRW

Liltera's blog

Be sure to visit the Writers4Higher Market! We have gear for the writer in you.

The Writers4Higher Market

 

Rhett DeVane

Fiction with a Southern Twist

Writers4Higher blog

Rhett's Website

Rhett's funny Southern Blog

 

 

 

 

Writers4Higher features Anne C. Petty

Welcome to Writers4Higher

 

 

The purpose of the Writers4Higher blog: to feature authors in a new light, a fresh look at the way writers use their talents and life energies to uplift humankind. Writers4Higher doesn’t promote religious or political views. Authors are asked to answer three simple questions: simple, yet complex.

 

 

This issue, Writers4Higher features

 

Anne C. Petty

 

 

 

 

Hi Anne! Welcome to the Writers4Higher family!

 

 

 

1.   Tell me about yourself. Your book(s), your life, your inspiration.

I’ve always been a wordsmith.  Even in grade school I remember how cool it was to be able to manipulate words, and somehow I never got over it. The idea of being a writer and book publisher took root pretty early on. At age 8, I remember taking the 8x10 cardboard from the package of my dad’s new shirt and folding it in half, thinking, ‘I’m going to write a book.’ On the front of the cardboard I wrote the title: The Dog Who Lost His Bark, and drew a kind of Scotty-looking dog underneath it. Inside I wrote, “He found it!” I rediscovered that early wordsmithing attempt years later when I was looking through my mother’s keepsakes after her death.

My writing foundation is in myth and folklore, and I’ve been an avid reader of classic horror since I was a kid. J.R.R. Tolkien, Ursula Le Guin, and Edgar Allen Poe are probably the biggest influences on my own storytelling approach. I’ve written a lot of non-fiction, as well. My first three published books were non-fiction, literary criticism. The first was a user-friendly version of my dissertation on Tolkien’s mythology, which is now in its 2^nd edition from the University of Alabama Press. The second was Tolkien in the Land of Heroes, a study of universal themes in LOTR, and the third was Dragons of Fantasy (how to write about dragons in fantasy/scifi fiction), both from Cold Spring Press/Simon & Schuster.

My literary tastes run toward the dark side, but I really prefer psychological horror and suspense over the guts ‘n gore school of writing. My first novel, Thin Line Between, was mined from the Australian Dreamtime legends. The sequel to that novel, Shaman’s Blood, came out last year from Journalstone Publishing in San Francisco. I also have a writing partner, P.V. “Pete” LeForge, with whom I’ve written a trilogy in a style we call Florida literary suspense. The first book of our North Florida trilogy is Hell and High Water, set in the Gulf Coast area and dealing with Florida swamp legends (Black Bay Books, 2012). The second book in this series, Museum Piece, is due out early 2013. Also, Journalstone will be publishing two of my books in 2013: The Cornerstone, based on the Doctor Faustus tale, and LIMBUS, INC., a shared-world anthology for which I’m both creator and series editor. Looks like I’ll be busy next year!

2.   Where do you see your writing taking you in the future?

In mid-2012, I was diagnosed with lung cancer and not given a very optimistic prognosis. However, I’ve already outlived the shelf-life that hospital physicians projected for me and have turned things around to the point that I now believe I’ll live to write another day, or even another year.

As I wrote in my blog, what has this experience done for me as a writer? I think it has made me less cerebral about the big issues of life and death. It’s so easy to kill off characters on paper, but having stared my own possible quick demise in the face, my perspective is changed forever. I hope it will infuse my storytelling with a level of immediacy and empathy that I think was missing.

I suspect my writing may become more spiritual in nature. My background in myth and folklore has made me aware of symbols and their greater meaning for people, but now those images are more personal. I definitely believe in the transformative power of the human mind. I wouldn’t call myself a religious person, but I’m open to the spiritual aspect of life and the beyond. Do I envision spirit guides of my own? Indeed I do.

3.   How do you use your talents/time to help others?

I love sharing with others what I know about the craft of writing. I’ve spent nearly 40 years as a professional editor, writer, and publisher, so I do have a few words of wisdom I can pass on to those who are curious. I especially enjoy presenting panels and seminar sessions at writing and pop-culture conferences. Dragon-con in Atlanta is one of my favorites,  where I have often been a guest speaker for the Tolkien Track.

Also high points for me every year have been the free summer workshops I’ve presented for the Tallahassee Writers Association at the downtown Tallahassee library. I’ve covered topics as diverse as the fluid landscape of the publishing industry to writing flash fiction to world-building techniques for science fiction and fantasy fiction.  I hope to do more of these, once I regain my health. 

And finally, there’s my publishing company, Kitsune Books. I started it 6 years ago with the mission to publish literary fiction and book-length poetry collections that were highly deserving but probably didn’t have a prayer of getting published by larger mainstream companies. Our motto was “Quality books for eclectic readers.” I’ve reluctantly decided to close the company at the end of 2012, because I just can’t manage the demands of running the company while I’m concentrating most of my energies on staying alive. That said, I feel I’ve accomplished what I set out to do with the press, which was to make sure that each book was a work of art, from the text to the cover, typeface, and layout. Working on a personal level with the authors and artists who crafted our thirty or so “Kitsune” books was a great joy and possibly the most rewarding period of my wordsmithing career. The fact that so many of these books won literary awards in our short history is icing on the cake.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Would you like to find Anne?

 

Check out the links to this talented author:

 

 

Anne Petty's Blog

Anne Petty's website

Anne Petty in the Journal Store

Kitsune Books website

Kitsune Books on Twitter

Anne Petty on Goodreads

Be sure to visit the Writers4Higher Market! We have gear for the writer in you.

The Writers4Higher Market

 

Rhett DeVane

Fiction with a Southern Twist

Writers4Higher blog

Rhett's Website

Rhett's funny Southern Blog